Method for application of smoke color to inside of bag

ABSTRACT

A method of packaging meat emulsion in a flexible thermoplastic bag, wherein the bag has dispersed on its insides, prior to insertion of the meat emulsion into the bag, additives such as liquid colorant or liquid smoke, via a squeeze roller and backing plate (or two squeeze rollers), is shown. An apparatus for dispersing the additives via a squeeze roller and backing plate (or two squeeze rollers) is also shown.

This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 08/077,467,filed Jun. 15, 1993.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein relates to the packaging of comminutedmeat pieces, commonly referred to as meat emulsion, and moreparticularly to vacuum packaging of discrete pieces of meat, such assausage or luncheon meats. Even more particularly, the invention relatesto the introduction of liquid smoke, colorant or other similaradditives. Typically, the bag is of a flexible thermoplastic material,and the bag is oriented, i.e. heat-shrinkable, as the resultant packagedproduct is often intended for cook-in, during which the bag materialshrinks about the product for a tight fit. The bag of cooked meat isthen sold in retail stores,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well known in the food packaging art to stuff thermoplastic bagswith various meat products. These products are typically processed andintroduced in the form of an emullsion or comminuted form. It is alsocommon practice to introduce liquid smoke, colorant, or other similaradditives to certain processed meat products such as sausage or luncheonmeats to impart the desired flavor or color to the food product. Theseadditives are usually blended into the food product before the stuffingoperation, or impregnated into the bag material itself if thecomposition of the bag material permits impregnation of such additives.These general practices require an additional step, either duringcomminutation of the meat or manufacture of the plastic material for thebag, prior to the operation of stuffing the meat into the bag. In theinstance of pre-blending the colorant or liquid smoke into the foodproduct, sometimes more additive is used than is really required. Forexample, if only the surface of the food product requires the colorantor liquid smoke, pre-blending uses excess additive which is blendedthroughout the food product. Additionally, in the instance of somesynthetic thermoplastic materials used in manufacturing the bags, liquidsmoke and colorant are not easily added to the polymeric resin itselfduring the extrusion of this resin into plastic sheet for the bag, andif added are not readily retained by the bag material.

For these reasons, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus forcoating the interior of a bag, which does not require the pre-blendingof the additive before the stuffing operation, or the impregnation ofthe bag material itself with the additive.

Many apparatus for the vacuum stuffing or packaging of meat into a bagare well known. One is the Belam vacuum meat press marketed by Belam,Inc., Oakbrook, Ill. Many patents disclose such vacuum stuffing and/orpackaging apparatuses, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,563,764, 3,703,064,3,760,556, 3,853,999, 3,928,938, 3,950,919, 4,132,048, 4,251,976,4,586,320, 4,672,793, 3,673,041, and 3,740,921, and U.K. PublishedPatent Specification No. 1,516,498. Some of these are specific to how toclose the bag. U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,041 shows the bag closure means of avacuum packaging apparatus wherein the bag closure is accomplished byheat sealing with a heat seal bar. U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,921 shows the bagclosure means of a vacuum packaging apparatus wherein the bag closure isaccomplished by clipping the bag neck with a clipper. U.S. Pat. No.4,586,320, describes the Furukawa 8150 vacuum meat stuffing apparatus.In particular one of these patents, namely U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,041, isdirected to a special heat seal bar for squeezing contaminants such asfatty substances out of the sealing area before the bag panels are fusedtogether to close the bag open neck, and in those instances where solidparticulate contaminants are found in the sealing area of the bag neckutilizing steam flushing to clean the inside surfaces of the bag neckarea prior to sealing. The disclosures of all of these patents areincorporated herein by reference.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,623 (Coffey and Suess, assignors to Oscar MayerFoods) involves atomized spraying of an aqueous solution of caramelcoloring in a humid environment about the surface of a meat product.U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,412 (Stanek, assignor to Grace) involves a sleeve ona stuffing horn wherein the sleeve has grooves for transmitting a liquidadditive onto the interior of the plastic. U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,430(Stanek, assignor to Grace) involves a sleeve on a stuffing horn whereinthe sleeve has atomizers for transferring a liquid additive onto theinterior of a food-product thermoplastic container. The disclosures ofthese three patents are also incorporated hereinby reference.

The package of meat can be frozen or refrigerated for storage. Eitherbefore or after storage, the package can be subjected to cook-in.Cook-in is a long slow process, typically about 1 to 4 hours, and can beup to 12 hours, at a temperature typically of about 160° F. (71° C.) to200° F. (93° C.) and can be from about 131° F. (55° C.) to 212° F. (100°C.). Cook-in films are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,411,919, 4,606,922,4,469,742, 4,855,183, and 4,879,124. In particular, when the meat isturkey, for certain cook-in applications, the bags are perforated, andthis is shown in the last-mentioned patent, namely U.S. Pat. No.4,879,124. An apparatus for making the perforations is described in U.S.Pat. No. 3,038,198. The disclosures of all of these patents are alsoincorporated herein by reference.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved methodfor the packaging of comminuted meat, wherein it is desired to introduceliquid smoke, colorant, or other similar additives to impart a desiredflavor or color to the meat product.

It is another object of the invention to facilitate packaging ofcomminuted meat when such additives are desired.

It is an advantage of the present invention that there is avoided thepre-blending of the additive into the meat before the stuffingoperation, or the impregnation of the plastic material itself with theadditive.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatusfor providing additives to a bag inside for when a bag is stuffed withcomminuted meat.

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the present invention provides a method to package discretepieces of meat with liquid additive in a flexible thermoplasticcontainer, said method comprising: (a) providing a bag comprising aflexible thermoplastic container having an inside, an outside, an openneck end, a closed bottom end, and opposing bag panels, said containerbeing vertically disposed with its open neck end beneath a stuffinghorn; (b) delivering a liquid additive through a delivery means intosaid container, said delivery means being attached to said stuffinghorn; (c) bringing together a squeeze roller and a backing plate wherebysaid container opposing bag panels are vertically held between saidsqueeze roller and said backing plate, said squeeze roller and saidbacking plate being disposed at said closed bottom end; (d) moving saidsqueeze roller upwardly along the container outside thereby dispersingthe liquid additive along the container inside to a desired level in thecontainer, and then bringing said squeeze roller apart from said backingplate; (e) stuffing through the open neck end of the thermoplasticcontainer via the stuffing horn with a comminuted meat product such thatthe liquid additive on the inside of the thermoplastic containercontacts the melt product; and (f) closing the open neck end of thecontainer.

The present invention also provides an apparatus for providing liquidadditives to a flexible, thermoplastic container inside during stuffingof said container with comminuted meat via a stuffing machine, saidapparatus comprising (a) a squeeze roller and a backing plate disposedwith respect to said stuffing machine such that the squeeze roller maybe brought together with the backing plate at a thermoplastic containerbottom, the squeeze roller moved upwardly along the container outside,and then said squeeze roller being brought apart from said backingplate, (b) a liquid delivery means attached to said stuffing machine fordelivering liquid additive to said container inside, (c) whereby aftersaid liquid additive is delivered to said container inside, said squeezeroller and said backing plate are brought together at said containerbottom, said squeeze roller is moved upwardly along said containeroutside, and then brought apart from said backing plate, therebydispersing said liquid additive along the inside of the container to adesired level.

Alternatively, in the method or the apparatus, instead of a squeezeroller and a backing plate, there could be used a pair of squeezerollers. But then that pair should be well matched in size and wellmatched in speed so that as the pair of rollers are moved upwardly alongthe two outside bag panels to disperse the liquid additive along thecontainer inside, the rollers move in sychronization. Thus, it ispreferred that a squeeze roller with a backing plate be used. Theinvention is further discussed herein with reference to this preferredembodiment, with the understanding that two squeeze rollers couldinstead be used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a vacuum stuffing apparatus 21, a bag23, and a squeeze roller 1A and a backing plate 1B, disposed at theclosed bottom end 11 of the bag 23.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view like FIG. 1, but in FIG. 2 the squeeze roller1A and backing plate 1B are shown with the squeeze roller disposed in anupward position on a bag panel on the outside of the bag 23.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing after the squeeze roller and backingplate have dispersed the liquid additive 3 along the inside of bag 23,then stuffing horn 29 is brought down into the bag open mouth neck end27 to disperse comminuted meat into the bag.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

It is preferred that a squeeze roller with a backing plate be used. Theinvention is further discussed herein with reference to this preferredembodiment, with the understanding that two squeeze rollers couldinstead be used. The two squeeze rollers are not illustrated here.

In FIG. 1 is shown schematically vacuum stuffing apparatus 21 and bag23. The bag may be of heat-shrinkable material or non-heat-shrinkablematerial. Also, the bag material may be mono-layer or multilayer (layersnot illustrated here). Bag 23 preferably is a multilayer flexiblethermoplastic material and is shown vertically disposed with its openmouth neck end 27 directed upwards and underneath discharge end 43 ofthe stuffing horn 29 portion of vacuum stuffer apparatus 21. Bag 23 isshown containing liquid additive 3. Liquid additive 3 has been dispersedfrom additive container 5 through flexible hose 7 attached to dispersingnozzle 9 disposed near the open discharge end 43 of the stuffing horn29. The liquid 3 is dispersed into the bag 23 via open neck 27 and thenthe roller 1A and backing plate 1B are brought together via a hydrauliclever arm schematically shown as 50, at the bag closed bottom end 11.

Next, in FIG. 2, roller 1A is shown in an upward position holdingoutsides of panels 37,39 of the bag container together and againstbacking plate 1B. This occurs after roller 1A is moved by arm 50 towardplate 1B and squeeze roller 1A is rolled upward along the outside of bag23 with bag panels 37,39 disposed between roller 1A and plate 1b todisperse liquid additive 3 along the insides of bag panels 37,39 of bag23 by causing panels 37,39 to press together with their insides touchingas the panels are held against plate 1B.

Next, roller 1A is moved out and away from bag 23 and backing plate 1Bvia the hydraulic lever arm 50, as shown in FIG. 3. Then stuffing horn29 portion of vacuum stuffing apparatus 21 is brought down verticallyinto the open mouth end 27 of bag 23, as bag 23 is shown verticallydisposed with its open mouth end 27 directed upwards and disposed aboutdischarge end 43. Stuffing horn 29 is lowered, as shown in FIG. 3, sothat it is in its lowered position inside bag 23 between bag panel 39and bag panel 37. Via flex hose 31, discrete pieces of comminuted meatproduct 41 are pushed from apparatus 21 in the direction of product flowarrows 33a, 33b, 33c, 33d, 33e, and 33f into bag 23. Clean out piston 35moves up and down to help push the discrete pieces of meat product 41out of stuffing horn 29 and into bag 23. Stuffing horn 29 retractsduring the stuffing process (not illustrated here). After stuffing, thebag mouth end may be clipped closed or heat sealed closed (notillustrated here).

While certain representative embodiments and details have been shown forthe purpose of illustration, numerous modifications to the inventiondescribed above can be made without departing from the inventiondisclosed.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of packaging discrete pieces of meatwith liquid additive in a flexible thermoplastic container, said methodcomprising:(a) providing a bag comprising a flexible thermoplasticcontainer having an inside, an outside, an open neck end, a closedbottom end, and opposing bag panels, said container being verticallydisposed with its open neck end beneath a stuffing horn; (b) deliveringa liquid additive through a delivery means into said container, saiddelivery means being attached to said stuffing horn; (c) bringingtogether a squeeze roller and a backing plate whereby said containeropposing bag panels are vertically held between said squeeze roller andsaid backing plate, said squeeze roller and said backing plate beingdisposed at said closed bottom end; (d) moving said squeeze rollerupwardly along the container outside thereby dispersing the liquidadditive along the container inside to a desired level in the container,and then bringing said squeeze roller apart from said backing plate; (e)stuffing through the open neck end of the thermoplastic container viathe stuffing horn with a comminuted meat product such that the liquidadditive on the inside of the thermoplastic container contacts the meatproduct; and (f) closing the open neck end of the container.
 2. Theprocess according to claim 1, wherein the comminuted meat productcomprises at least one member selected from the group consisting ofsausage an luncheon meat.
 3. The process according to claim 1, whereinthe liquid additive comprises at least one member selected from thegroup consisting of a liquid flavorant and a liquid colorant.
 4. Theprocess according to claim 3, wherein the liquid additive comprisesliquid smoke.
 5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the flexiblethermoplastic container comprises a heat shrinkable film.
 6. The processaccording to claim 5, wherein the film is a multilayer film.
 7. Theprocess according to claim 1, wherein the closing of the open neck endof the container is carried out by clipping closed the open neck end ofthe container.
 8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the closingof the open neck end of the container is carried out by applying a heatseal across the open neck end of the container.
 9. The process accordingto claim 1, further comprising cooking the comminuted meat product afterthe open neck of the container is closed.
 10. The process according toclaim 9, wherein the cooking is carried out at a temperature of fromabout 55° C. to 110° C., for a period of from about 1 to 12 hours.